…one great idea that’s inexpensive and works like magic is to spend some time optimising your order forms for when somebody does buy from you (this will make your affiliates LOVE you too).

When you think about it, by the time somebody gets from somewhere else online to your website, reads your content, decides to buy and arrives at your order form, you have a prospect with a credit card already in their hot little hand, and they are in a buying frame of mind.

That means there’s a good chance if you put another related offer in front of them while they are going through your order process (the proverbial, “would you like fries with that?”), they’ll often be happy to take it.

And when you get the ‘order form bump’ or up-sell offer right, you’ll start making more money with every customer who comes to your website, or walks through your door.

So what’s the secret to creating a backend or upsell offer that gets your prospects clicking the “Yes, Add This To My Order” button on your order page?

You do it like this…

______________________________________________

Don’t have time to read this powerful step-by-step guide right this minute? Click here to get the PDF version and read it anytime you want!

______________________________________________

1. Make Sure the Up-sell Adds To And Enhances The Main Offer

The very first thing you need to do is make sure any upsell you offer is tightly related to the main offer. The best way to do it is to make it not only closely related, but something that actually enhances the use, utility, or enjoyment of the thing they purchased in your main offer.

A classic example is McDonalds. When you order a Big Mac, any well-trained staff member will ask if you want fries and/or a drink with that. It clearly works because a lot of people say yes to this offer, because if you’re into fast food, fries and a drink enhance the enjoyment of your burger.

Now you can do the same thing regardless of what you’re selling. For example:

If you’re selling a weight loss app, you could offer a low-fat cookbook or a collection of smoothie recipes as an up-sell on your order form

If your main offer is an email copywriting course, you can offer a number of personal copy critiques on the backend

If your main product is all about setting up and running a successful Accountancy Practice, You can offer tools on the backend, such as a course on generating leads, or a package of marketing campaigns that have worked successfully for others

Say your main product is a “how to manage your debtors” course. You can offer an upsell that includes resources like a debt management checklist and workbook, and 5 personalised debt-management counselling sessions with you or one of your advisors

If you main product is a set of weightlifting training videos, you can offer the weights themselves as an up-sell

So the idea here is not to just toss any old offer in front of your prospects and hope for the best. Make sure your up-sell and main offer go together like… well, like Big Macs and fries.

MAJOR CAVEAT: Do NOT leave anything critical to getting the results your customer expects out of your core product, and try to offer the ‘missing piece’ as an up-sell.

You’ve probably seen offers like this before. You buy a product that promises X result, and then you are offered an up-sell that basically says “Well the thing you just purchased won’t work properly unless you also buy this other thing…”

Not only will this piss your customer off and stop them buying your up-sell, you’ll probably lose the initial sale, and the customer’s future business as well. Plus they are likely to give you negative reviews and bitch about you to everyone they know.

Not good…

OK, so next up…

2. Offer an Irresistible Deal

Putting a related offer in front of your prospects is a great way to increase your sales. But turning that offer into an irresistible, no-brainer deal is even better.

Let’s look at the fast food example again. If you order a burger with a small fries and drink, the person taking your order will likely ask you if you’d like to “super-size” your order for just a small extra charge. The reason this works so well (to the tune of BILLIONS of dollars every year) is that the deal is irresistible.

You get yourself a LOT more of what you want for just a little bit more money.

And it doesn’t matter what you’re selling, you can do the same thing in your business.

For example:

“I usually charge $997 up front and $397 per month for this sort of coaching. But as a valued member of my new Stock Trading group, you’ll get a special price of just $197 per month for this same high-quality coaching, and I’ll waive the up-front setup fee entirely…”

“And you’re not locked in. Try out the program for a full month, and if you feel it isn’t for you for any reason, let me know and I’ll give you a full refund, no questions asked…”

If you are a trader and you’ve just purchased a Stock Trading product, this sort of offer would be virtually impossible to refuse…

One more example. I know a well top marketer in the supplements market who makes an irresistible offer for his core product, and then offers an up-sell consisting of more of the exact same product for an even lower per-pack price.

So people buy 2 packs of something they know they want (and will likely continue to use) for $49.00 with free shipping, and then because they’ve just made a purchase, they are offered another FOUR packs of the exact same product for just $49.00 as a reward.

And as a result, his sales are BOOMING…

One final thing before we move on. Creating an irresistible offer is so important to the results of your Flash Sale that I’ve put together a Free Cheat Sheet that shows you how to create the perfect offer. To make sure you don’t miss anything as you develop your offer, click here to grab your Free copy of The Perfect Offer Cheatsheet

Ok, next up…

3. Make Use Of Short-Form Copy

So now you’ve got an eager prospect sitting on your order page with their credit card in their hot little hand, it is NOT the time to put another long sales letter or sales video in front of them.

They’re eager and ready to buy. If you put another intimidating wall of text or video in front of your prospects, you might just have them hitting the back button and abandoning the order form, never to be seen again.

SIDEBAR: There are plenty of studies to show that the shopping cart or order page abandonment rate runs as high as 95% for some merchants. That’s why optimising your order page to improve conversions, and minimising friction as much as possible is one way to generate a whole lot of free money.

You’ve already done the hard work of getting them into the kind of emotional state needed for them to buy, so you’ve already built your credibility and established trust to some extent.

You don’t need to do any of that again.

Now all you need to do is simply focus on the benefits and results they can achieve if they take your up-sell offer. The fact is, your up-sell page copy might be nothing more than a results-driven headline, a list of the top benefits, and a action-orientated call to action (such as Yes! I Want This“).

TIP: As with everything you do in your marketing, test to find out for sure what your audience responds to the best. Split test different headlines, your bulleted list of benefits, your call to action and your order button text. You might even test to see if short-form copy beats a short sales video.

You’ll never know until you try.

Next…

4. Frame Your Price (So You Don’t Scare People Away)

You’ve already sold your prospect on purchasing the main offer, and they’ve already agreed to whatever price you’re charging. So when you offer an up-sell, you’ll want to frame the price so that it focuses on the up-sell only.

Let’s look at an example…

Suppose you’re selling a video training course for $97, with an up-sell offer for $27 for an app.

When it comes time to ask for the order, you do NOT want to say this:

“Would you like to add the app to your order, making it a total of $124 for the course and app?”

Suddenly that sounds like it’s going to cost a lot. Your prospect is likely to start second-guessing their purchase “Do I really want this thing after all…”. And in a flash you could lose the whole sale.

Instead, make sure you focus on the price of the up-sell only: “Would you like to add the app to your order for just $27 more?”

Ahhhh… that’s so much better. That sounds like it’s doable. And because the prospect is already planning on spending $97 with you, that extra $27 doesn’t sound like such a big deal, especially when they think about the added enjoyment they will get.

It’s just like when you are buying a car. If you’re like a lot of people, by the time you’ve decided on the make, model, colour and basic accessories, and taken the car for a test drive, it’s a slam dunk for the dealer to up-sell you all sorts of other accessories to ‘personalise’ your car.

And these additional items are always presented in a non-threatening way. Well you can have metallic paint for another $3.00 a month. And a sunroof for just $4.00 a month.

Before you know it, your monthly payment is $100 more than you wanted to pay, but you’ve personalised ‘your’ car to the point where in your mind you already own it, and you just want to get the deal done. You’re excited about driving away in your new vehicle, and there’s no way you’re going to back out of the deal now.

They’ve gotcha 🙂

It’s all in how you frame it for your prospects.

Next…

5. Create a Nagging Sense Of Urgency

Nothing gets people jumping all over your fancy order button like a true sense of urgency. And a great way to create this sense of urgency is by making your upsell offer genuinely scarce.

For example, you might make your up-sell a one-time offer. That means it’s something that’s only available right now while your prospect is on the page.

If she doesn’t grab it now, she won’t be able to get it in the future. Or if the product is available somewhere else, she may be forced to pay full price (yuk!).

An example might be:

“Special one-time offer: add this exercise-planning app to your order right now, and it’s yours for 60% off the normal price. If you leave this page, this special price disappears for good… grab your discount now before it’s gone!”

Next…

6. Use A Compelling Call To Action

Good copywriting rules apply to your up-sell in the same way they do to your main offer. And that means if you just drop the order link in front of your prospects and expect them to click it, you’re going to be disappointed.

Far better instead to create a strong call to action that gets people to act now. You should tell prospects what to do next, and give them a powerful reason to do it.

For example:

Click here now to add this app to your order. And remember, this special 60% off offer disappears when you leave this page, so order now!

Your up-sell page is going to have two options.

One option is “Yes, add this to my order.”

The option on the other link is, “No thank you, I don’t want this.”

To avoid confusing your prospects, these should be the only two options on the page. People will either add the up-sell to their order and continue with their purchase, or they’ll skip your offer and just stay with their original order.

Now here’s a sneaky but powerful trick you might consider testing…

Phrase your “yes” and “no” options in a way that helps compel people to click on the “yes” option.

For example, say you’re selling some sort of weight-loss information. Your buttons might have these two options:

“Yes, I want to be ready for the beach!”

“No thanks, I don’t want to get rid of my love handles.”

See how that works?

The “yes” option focuses on they outcome they want and provides a benefit. The “no” option asks the prospect to agree with something that they probably don’t want to agree with. That’s going to make them stop and reconsider your offer.

Here’s another example:

“Yes, I want to save money on my electricity bills!”

“No, I’m not ready to save money just yet.”

And one more…

“Yes, I’ ready to find my soulmate.”

“No, I’m ok with being on my own for now.”

And finally…

7. Make It As Easy As Possible

If you followed all the tips above, you should have a prospect who’s as ready as she’ll ever be to complete her order. Now your goal is to make it as easy as possible for her to place that order and grab your up-sell.

The last thing you want at this stage is make your prospects jump through a bunch of hoops. Don’t include unnecessary steps between them and their getting their hands on their order. And don’t put obstacles that create ‘friction’ in the way.

Because if you do, your prospect is likely to lose their enthusiasm and abandon their shopping cart (as I mentioned earlier, up to 95% of people do just that…).

Here are some dos and don’ts to follow:

Do make it as easy as one-click. If you’re offering an upsell right after the customer has already filled in the order form, it’s critical that you make it as easy to buy the upsell as clicking one button. In other words, you do NOT want to make your prospect fill out the order form or their credit card all over again. (WARNING: Paypal often makes your customers do this)

Don’t make them run through a mind numbing gauntlet of up-sells. You have probably been through sales funnels that three, four, five or even more up-sells (The Warrior Forum and JVZoo are notorious for doing this crap). Quite often people can’t even get to the order form without going through 4 sales videos and accepting or declining every one of these offers.

You know yourself how painful it is to run the gauntlet like this, so don’t do that to your customers! Just put one or at most two well-placed offers in front of them and leave it at that.

And if they decline one or both up-sells, send them straight through to the order form. Don’t make them go through a bunch of additional offers. The customer experience sucks and will seriously decrease your conversions (and risk future sales as well).

Don’t make people “register” before ordering. If you need your customers to create an account, then have this account automatically created during the purchasing process. Even if the amount of “work” you’re asking the customer to do is the same, framing is the key here. If you suddenly force a customer to “create an account” before they can finish placing an order, they may just dump their cart and disappear.

Ok,so now let’s wrap things up…

Conclusion

You’ve no doubt heard the saying, “Strike while the iron is hot.”

When it comes to making sales, the iron is never going to be as hot as when you have a prospect filling out an order form. That’s why it’s a great time to “strike” by offering an irresistible up-sell offer they simply can’t refuse. So get started on boosting your sales by creating upsells on your order forms today – and increase your conversions using the seven proven ideas you just discovered!

As I mentioned at the start of this post, the list you build during your product launch is going to become your most valuable business asset, and will give you the perfect springboard for creating a profitable, long-term, sustainable business for yourself and your family. To learn more, check out Jeff Walker’s free Product Launch Masterclass here.

Talk soon,

Rocky

PLUS: When you’re ready, here are 4 ways I can help you to grow your business using product launches:

1. How To Create A Signature Product Out Of Thin Air In 72 Hours Or LessCreating your product does not need to take weeks or months. My 72 Hour Product Creation Guide shows you how to build high value products one after the other in 72 hours or less. Click Here

2. How To Outsource Your Product Creation And Make It Hands Free.
Outsourcing the creation of some or all of your products and bonuses is a great way to save your time for the more important (and more fun) things you’d rather be doing. Grab my Hands Free Outsourcing Cheat Sheet to learn more. Click Here

3. How To Build A Profitable Launch List.
Building an email list is critical if you plan on doing a launch for your product, service or business. My 1-2-3 List Building Cheat Sheet will show you how to build a responsive list of prospects who are ready to buy from you during your launch. Click Here

4. Work One-On-One With Me
If you’d like to work directly with me to run a launch for your business… just send me a message by emailing me at rocky [at] localwebsolutions.com and put “One-on-One” in the subject line… tell me a little about your business and what you’d like to work on together, and I’ll get you all the details!

Once the excitement of your Product Launch Formula launch has settled down, and your new customers are happy and contented with the product they bought from you, running regular flash sales is a great way to generate a lot of sales and buzz in a very short period of time.

The best way to do this is to plan each promotion a few weeks in advance, and invite your PLF marketing partners to promote the event with you. Having some of them on board will help to build anticipation among your prospects and customers and increase your sales significantly.

So you don’t miss any of the critical steps in running a successful flash sale, make sure you follow this 25-point checklist every single time…

______________________________________________

Don’t have time to read this powerful step-by-step guide right this minute? Click here to get the PDF version and read it anytime you want!

______________________________________________

1. Define A Goal For Your Flash Sale

The first step is define your goal for this sale. Ideally you’ll set one primary goal to focus on, though you may have secondary goals as well.

Your goals might include:

Acquisition of new customers with an irresistible low priced offer

Generating more sales for one of your front-end profits

Boosting the sales of a higher ticket product or service

Creating some excitement among your affiliates

Creating some buzz for your products or services in your market

Establishing yourself as a “big player” in the niche

Cross promoting different lead magnets to build your mailing lists

Generating excitement about the launch of your NEXT product

So pick your primary goal, and then let’s move on to Step 2…

2. Pick A Product Or Service That’s Already In Demand

No matter what your goal is, for best results you’ll want to promote something that’s already in-demand. And throwing a flash sale for one of your most popular products serves this purpose perfectly. Of course you can also run a flash sale on a newly released product, but you’ll want to be sure it’s something your market really wants to buy.

In other words, do your market research first! Specifically, you’ll want to:

Search marketplaces like ClickBank.com, JVZoo.com, and Amazon.com to see what the hottest selling stuff is in your niche

Once you’re sure you have a popular product to promote, then move on to…

3. Choose A Date For Your Promotion

When you are choosing a date for your flash sale, keep these points in mind:

Choose a date that is at least 2 or 3 weeks away, so both you and your affiliates have plenty of time to prepare and schedule in a mailing date

Research the date on sites such as JVNotifyPro.com to see if there is anything major going on at the same time. If a really popular marketer in your niche is opening the shopping cart for a huge product launch on the same date, you’ll struggle to get affiliates onboard or customers to take notice of your messages

Next…

4. Decide On Your Irresistible Offer

Here’s where you decide on the following points:

What components will you include in the offer? For example, are you going to include extra bonuses to make the offer even more attractive?

Are you going to offer a big discount to increase the number of sales? Hint: A flash sale will have the best results if you make a really attractive offer, such as 40% or more off the regular price

What percentage of the sale price will you give to your affiliates? The percentage you pay out is partly going to depend on your goals. If you’re goal is to build a big list, getting your affiliates really involved and generating backend profits later, then you might want to give all or most of the frontend sale price to affiliates as commission. If your goal is to generate a lot of frontend profit, you can offer a more standard 50% commission to your affiliates. (Of course this assumes you’re selling digital products. The commission percentages are going to be smaller if you’re selling physical products.)

5. Determine How Long Your Flash Sale Will Run

As the name implies, a flash sale happens in a flash – it’s usually over in a matter of hours, but it may run anywhere from four hours to twenty-four hours. So…

Determine the starting and ending times of your sale

Plan on running your sale for at least 8-12 hours to get maximum exposure

Consider your prospects’ time zones and activities (such as work) when deciding the start and end times of your sales. In other words, you don’t want the entire sale to fall within the working day of your audience, or you’ll probably have a lot of people missing out

Next…

6. Create Your Marketing Materials

Now it’s time to create sales materials for your marketing partners to share with their audiences. These materials are for these three purposes:

To build anticipation for the sale in the week leading up to the sale day (similar to Product Launch Formula’s pre-launch content)

To announce the sale itself (like Jeff Walker’s ‘Open Cart’ email)

To send out one or more reminders about the sale during the day of the actual sale (to create scarcity and increase urgency)

Think about the types of communication channels you and your affiliates will be using to reach prospects, and create marketing materials for those channels.

For example:

An email sequence covering the full period of the promotion

A series of story-based blog posts leading up to the sale

Social media posts with links back to pre-sale content and the offer itself (short messages for Twitter, longer messages for platforms like Facebook)

Text messages with links to your promotional content

Once you’ve created these materials, upload them to the affiliate centre so they are ready for your partners to grab them.

Next…

7. Let Your Partners Know About The Upcoming Sale

If you already have a group of affiliates or JV partners, then now is the time to let them know about the sale.

Give them at least two weeks notice of the sale so they have time to prepare. More time is preferable because top affiliates usually have a full mailing schedule

Give your affiliates login details so they can access the product (in case they want to do a product review)

Let them know how they can promote (e.g., how to get their affiliate link easily)

Give them links to the marketing materials inside the affiliate centre and ideas on how to use them

Generate some excitement around the event. Talk about the commissions they can earn, the current conversion rate on the sales letter, etc

Give your affiliates a detailed timeline so they know when to send out your pre-sale materials

Next step…

8. Reach Out To And Recruit New Marketing Partners

If you’d like to turn your sales day in to a really big event, you may want to reach out and recruit some new affiliate partners to help you out. You can do this yourself, or you can pay an affiliate manager or JV broker to do it for you.

Of course it’s going to be easier to get people to say yes to your request if they already know and trust you. With this in mind, here’s an example email or social media message you can send to your potential partners…

Subject line: just wanted you to be the first to know…

Hi [First Name],

[Your Name] here from [your website]. I’ve got a flash sale coming up in [number of weeks], and I’d like to extend a personal invitation for you to join in on this unique event where you can generate [percent] commissions – that works out to be [$ amount] for every sale you bring in.

This sale is for [name of product] which is one of my best converting products, and [give them a quick description of the product]. This would be a good match for your audience because [explain the reason their audience will like it].

You can take a look for yourself and download a free copy of the product here: [download link]

This flash sale starts at [time and date] and ends [insert when it ends]. Because the sale period is so short, we’re expecting conversion rates to be higher than normal, which are currently [percent conversion rates]. That means those [$ amount] commissions are going to add up for you fast!

I’ve already set everything up for you so it’s quick and easy for you to take part in this event.

Here’s your affiliate link: [insert link]

You can get a complete set of emails and ads to promote the event here: [insert link to affiliate centre]

Shoot me back an email to let me know if you’re on board or if you have any questions! I’m looking forward to working with you [First Name].

[sign off]

p.s. The people who jump in early get the biggest commission rates. Hit reply to let me know you’re in, and I’ll lift your commission rate to [percentage]…

9. Take Care Of All The Technology

A popular, well-promoted flash sale can create a lot of traffic to your website. And in turn, this sort of heavy load on your web server can create a lot of problems on your site. That’s why you’ll want to sale-proof your systems.

These 3 steps are important:

If you’re not every technically minded, or if your time is better spent running the rest of the launch, then hire a tech person to handle hardening up your system

Make sure you have a premium web hosting account that can accommodate a big spike in traffic and requests

If you already have a dedicated server, make sure it’s ready for higher than normal traffic

And then…

10. Prepare Your Customer Service Department

Another area where you’re likely to see a big spike is in your customer service requests. Most of them will be minor (lost logins, difficulty access the downloads, refund requests, etc.). That’s why you’ll want to ensure your customer service people are ready to handle the load.

This includes things like:

Hiring additional short-term help to answer emails or man the help desk if needed

Training both new people and existing staff on how to handle the inquiries they are likely to get during the sale

Creating some new FAQs and other materials to help cut down on customer service load during the sale

Offering multiple ways for prospects and customers to reach you, such as a direct email address, live chat and a 24 hour help desk

And then…

11. Test And Track All Of Your Promotional Copy

The goal here is to optimize your ad copy, email copy, and sales page copy so that you get maximum conversions during your sale. You’ll want to:

Use something like Google AdWords or Facebook ads as a quick way to generate traffic for your testing

Focus on optimising the factors that will have the most impact, such as the offer, the headline, bulleted benefit list, the P.S., your price and call to action

Next step…

12. Prepare Your Email Messages and Blog Posts

By now you’ve will have created materials for your affiliates and marketing partners to use in their promotions. Now it’s time to create these same materials for yourself. This step is pretty easy because in most cases, all you’ll have to do is tweak the affiliate materials to make them unique.

For example, you might have an affiliate email that refers to “John Doe’s new product is…” so you would tweak this to first-person language such as, “My new product is”

13. Create Your Sales Video

The next step is to create a short sales video to help generate excitement on the day of your flash sale. This is especially important if your sales page is a text letter, because offering a pre-sale video will help you reach and convert more people into customers.

Some sales video pointers include:

Keep it short, just two to three minutes highlighting the biggest benefits

Present a problem, highlight what that problem is costing people, and then offer your product as the best solution to the problem

Showcase the main benefits of your product and the results they can expect

Provide a strong call to action, making sure to remind them it’s a flash sale to create urgency

On the day of the sale, you’ll be posting this video on YouTube and on your social media pages, as well as on your blog.

The next step…

14. Prepare Your Facebook Ads

To generate as much excitement as possible on sale day, running some paid advertising is a great strategy. Facebook’s ad platform is a good choice, although you’ll need some experience if you’d like to maximise your returns.

The idea is to launch your ads on sale day, but of course you’ll want to have them prepared and ready to go in advance. This includes:

Choosing an eye-catching graphic

Writing some persuasive ad copy

Selecting a tightly targeted audience using Facebook’s ad editor

Setting it all up to start running at the correct time and day

Double checking everything to make sure the links, start time and end times are all correct

Next…

15. Buy Some Ads On High-Traffic Niche Sites

Same as we discussed above, you’ll want to prepare ads and set them to run on the day of your sale. Most niche site owners like to set up and run ads manually, so you’ll want to make arrangements with the owner and pay in advance so everything’s ready to go.

16. Start To Build Buzz On Social Media

If you’ve followed any of Jeff Walker’s Product Launch Formula launches, you’ll know that he starts ‘seeding’ his audience several weeks before he releases the first piece of pre-launch content.

You don’t have to go as far as that for your Flash Sale, but you can certainly do simple things like:

Building anticipation for the upcoming sale by hinting that something big is coming

Sharing cryptic or normal graphics, videos or other content that are likely to go viral

Using a specific call to action hinting at something cool coming up, and encouraging people to share the content with their friends

Next up…

17. Warn Your Payment Processor Of Increased Volume

Even though for the most part online marketing doesn’t have the same shady reputation it used to have, there are still plenty of crooks around doing some pretty dodgy stuff.

For this reason, your payment processor may suspect suspicious activity if you suddenly have a huge surge in sales without warning them. And if they suspect suspicious activity, they could temporarily suspend your account.

In fact, this still happens to lots of people, which can cause all sorts of problems. From not getting paid yourself, to being unable to pay your affiliates, to not being able to pay for any physical products or bonuses you have to deliver.

That’s why you’ll want to do two things:

Let your payment processor know about the expected surge in sales so they don’t get the wrong idea. It’s best if you speak to a real live human on the phone about this, get that person’s name, and ask them to email you the details of the call so you have proof in writing that they knew about your sale.

Make sure you have a “Plan B” just in case your payment processor does go down for any reason. You’ll also want to ensure that your Plan B gives credit to affiliates, where applicable

The next step is…

18. Set Up One Or More Backend Offers

If you haven’t done so already, make sure to build out your sales funnel on the backend of this offer to increase sales and profits for both you and your affiliates. This may include:

Adding an order form upsell or ‘bump’ offer that allows customers to add something to their order by clicking a checkbox

Inserting a range of backend offers inside the product itself

Setting up a multi-part autoresponder sequence for these new customers that makes backend offers for other related products and services they’ll be needing

Next…

19. Remind Your Partners Of The Upcoming Sale

Now it’s time to remind all of your marketing partners of the approaching sale, and let them know the final details of when they can start promoting.

So, for example:

Let people know two weeks before the sale date that they can start promoting in one week’s time

About a week and a half before the sale, remind them that they can start to promote in 3 days

Remind them to start pre-selling 4 days before the sale day

Remind them the night before the sale that it’s game day tomorrow

Remind them the day of the sale and ask them to promote hard for maximum results

TIP: You can automate all of these email messages by pre-loading them into an autoresponder such as Aweber or another reliable service.

Next…

20. Send Your Promotional Messages To Your List

Now’s the time to begin building anticipation by sending your pre-sale emails, starting at around one week before the sale starts, and then three or four days before the sale starts.

21. Email Your List The Night Before

Now send one final anticipation email the night before the sale to generate anticipation and excitement. Be sure to list the benefits of the product and the results people can expect get from owning it, as well as reminding them how short the sale period is.

22. Upload The Offer Page

You can do this early on the morning of the sale.

23. Test The Entire Sales Process From Start To Finish

Do a full systems check by placing orders through different browsers and making sure everything works correctly. Run through and test all the links, forms and payment processor steps to make sure everything is ready for your sale.

24. Send Out Your Sale Day Materials

When the sale starts, send out all the sales materials you’ve prepared, including your emails, blog posts and social media posts.

25. Publish Your ‘Last Chance’ Materials

Later in the day (and a few hours before the sale ends) send out your ‘last chance’ emails, release your final blog posts, and make some final social media posts reminding people that this is their last chance to get the product at a big discount.

Conclusion

So there you have a complete 25-point checklist for running your very own super-profitable post-product launch Flash Sale. Now print out this checklist and get to work setting up your sale today!

PLUS: When you’re ready, here are 4 ways I can help you to grow your business using product launches:

1. How To Create A Signature Product Out Of Thin Air In 72 Hours Or LessCreating your product does not need to take weeks or months. My 72 Hour Product Creation Guide shows you how to build high value products one after the other in 72 hours or less. Click Here

2. How To Outsource Your Product Creation And Make It Hands Free.
Outsourcing the creation of some or all of your products and bonuses is a great way to save your time for the more important (and more fun) things you’d rather be doing. Grab my Hands Free Outsourcing Cheat Sheet to learn more. Click Here

3. How To Build A Profitable Launch List.
Building an email list is critical if you plan on doing a launch for your product, service or business. My 1-2-3 List Building Cheat Sheet will show you how to build a responsive list of prospects who are ready to buy from you during your launch. Click Here

4. Work One-On-One With Me
If you’d like to work directly with me to run a launch for your business… just send me a message by emailing me at rocky [at] localwebsolutions.com and put “One-on-One” in the subject line… tell me a little about your business and what you’d like to work on together, and I’ll get you all the details!

Ryan Levesque is currently using Jeff Walker’s Product Launch Formula to re-launch his fabulous ASK Masterclass, and it’s very instructive to see how he’s integrating his ASK methodology with PLF to laser target his marketing message.

I’ve seen quite a few big players doing this type of lead segmentation lately (including Jeff during his PLF launch at the end of 2017) and it is a great way to increase your conversions.

Here’s how Ryan is doing it…

______________________________________________

Don’t have time to read this powerful step-by-step guide right this minute? Click here to get the PDF version and read it anytime you want!

______________________________________________

When you arrive at his landing page, you see an offer to learn how Ryan made his first $1 million dollars online, step-by-step. When you click on the orange button that says Click Here For Instant Access…

… you see a popup form where Ryan is implementing a cut-down version of his ASK Method strategy and segmenting people into 5 different groups (or what he calls buckets).

His 5 buckets target people who are:

Just getting started

In their early stages of business growth

Coaches and consultants who work one-on-one

People will larger businesses that have a chance to scale

Marketing consultants and agencies

Ryan has determined that these are the 5 main groups of people he can help by doing in-depth survey’s of his prospects (using what he calls Deep-Dive Surveys), and has customised his marketing message based on where people tell him they are in their businesses.

When you’ve selected the category that’s the best fit for, just click the ‘Continue’ button…

…and you’ll see Step 2: Fill Out The Form Below. When you enter your email address and click the ‘Continue’ button…

…you see this screen with the message ‘Generating Your Custom Training…’ This gives the impression that your training is being customised (because it has been), and I’m guessing this is also where Ryan ‘cookies’ people for retargeting later.

After a few seconds, you are automatically redirected to Ryan’s Ask Method Masterclass training site where he has the typical 4-video PLF setup – 3 content videos spaced a few days apart, and a final sales video inviting you to join the program…

Every part of this process is scientifically designed to take people logically and smoothly through the optin process using what Ryan calls micro-commitments. Micro-commitments use the persuasion principle of Commitment and Consistency to allow people to take baby steps, which is a great way to get them to complete any process without overwhelming them.

Ryan’s Masterclass content is evergreen, so he can run this type of product launch several times each year without having to reinvent the wheel or create any new content at all.

I remember when Ryan first created the original content for what has now become The ASK Masterclass. It was with a Seed Launch for a product called Survey Funnel Formula (I went through that Seed Launch with him as he created the product).

A couple of years later, Survey Funnel Formula was starting to morph into The ASK Method. In fact, here’s a screen shot of the exact email Ryan sent out for his Deep Dive Survey when he was asking for feedback:

As you can see, readers had 4 options to choose from. When you clicked on one of those links, you were taken to one of 4 different pages where Ryan asked just ONE question.

Here what a couple of those pages looked like:

…and another one…

When you clicked the Submit button, you were taken here…

Quick and simple. Based on the answers to what Ryan calls the SMIQ (Single Most Important Question) he created the core content for his ASK Masterclass, and now he’s running another launch with Jeff Walkers proven Product Launch Formula system doing the heavy lifting.

Can you see how powerful it is to combine the PLF process and The ASK Method? It gives you a one-two punch that is hard to beat.

One final thing. Being able to create irresistible offers is so important to the success of your launch and your business’s future that I’ve put together a Free Cheat Sheet that shows you how to create the perfect offer. To make sure you don’t miss anything as you develop your offer, click here to grab your Free copy of The Perfect Offer Cheatsheet

P.S. If you’d like to save a copy of this step-by-step guide that you can refer to later, click here to get the PDF version and save it to your desktop for when you need it.

PLUS: When you’re ready, here are 4 ways I can help you to grow your business using product launches:

1. How To Create A Signature Product Out Of Thin Air In 72 Hours Or LessCreating your product does not need to take weeks or months. My 72 Hour Product Creation Guide shows you how to build high value products one after the other in 72 hours or less. Click Here

2. How To Outsource Your Product Creation And Make It Hands Free.
Outsourcing the creation of some or all of your products and bonuses is a great way to save your time for the more important (and more fun) things you’d rather be doing. Grab my Hands Free Outsourcing Cheat Sheet to learn more. Click Here

3. How To Build A Profitable Launch List.
Building an email list is critical if you plan on doing a launch for your product, service or business. My 1-2-3 List Building Cheat Sheet will show you how to build a responsive list of prospects who are ready to buy from you during your launch. Click Here

4. Work One-On-One With Me
If you’d like to work directly with me to run a launch for your business… just send me a message by emailing me at rocky [at] localwebsolutions.com and put “One-on-One” in the subject line… tell me a little about your business and what you’d like to work on together, and I’ll get you all the details!

No matter what kind of product launch you are preparing for with the Product Launch Formula process, a blog is going to become your go-to resource for generating traffic, both while you’re preparing for your launch, and during the process of releasing your product or service.

And if you have a blog, then you are going to need a good deal of content to engage with readers and keep them coming back.

But this is were many people get stuck…

It can take a lot of time to create the volume of content you’ll need to drive significant traffic to your blog.

Of course you can outsource it, but it can take a lot of money to get others to create the type of quality content needed to position you as an expert. So regardless of whether you create it yourself or pay others to do it for you, creating content is a big investment…

But there are a number of shortcuts you can take, and to get you started, here are 9 blog post ideas you can use to create awesome blog posts in 10 minutes or less….

______________________________________________

Don’t have time to read this game-changing guide right this minute? Click here to get the PDF version and read it anytime you want!

______________________________________________

1. Create Blog Articles Out Of Private Label Rights Content

The first hack is to buy some PLR (private label rights) articles that you can edit or make slight tweaks to so they are unique and up to your high standards, and then post them to your blog as your own.

Alternatively you might copy excerpts out of PLR ebooks or reports and then post these as articles on your blog. Either way, it takes just a few minutes to create unique, valuable content and post it for your readers to enjoy.

Here are 2 more ideas for using PLR to create content:

Have a PLR video transcribed at Rev.com to create an article or a series of articles for your blog. You may even be able to buy these sorts of transcripts as part of a package, or you can create your own using Rev.com

TIP: This is especially easy if the video includes slides, because you can simply write your article from the content contained in the slides.

Compile several pieces of PLR content to into blog posts that are entirely new. For example, you could take parts from three or four PLR articles and weave them together to create an entirely new article

And speaking of excerpts…

2. Repurpose Excerpts From Your Products

Taking excerpts from your existing products is a super-quick way to create any number of blog articles. The other benefit of this strategy is that you can quickly insert a pitch at the end of the article to promote your product launch’s lead magnet.

There are 2 ways to use these types of excerpts:

1. The first way is to simply pull the excerpt directly out of the product, add an introduction and a conclusion, and post it to your blog.

For example, let’s suppose you have a report that gives people 9 ways to cut calories. You can take out 3 or 4 of these strategies to create your article, then at the end you can invite people to join your launch list to get more great ideas.

2. The other way is to cut some of the content out of the excerpt so people will want to join your list to get the rest of the details.

Let’s take the example of the report with 9 calorie cutting strategies again. You might excerpt out all 9 ideas, but you remove some of the details. This way readers will get an article that tells them what to do, but they don’t get the exact instructions of how to do it. They’ll need to join your launch list to get those exact instructions.

Next…

3. Create Valuable Link Lists

People LOVE link lists because when done right, they help them save time when finding valuable information on a topic or subject they are interested in.

A link list can come in a variety of formats, including:

• A gear or equipment list. You could list the most valuable tools and resources you personally use and recommend to others. A list like this can save beginners a lot of hassle, because they don’t have to do as much research, and you can save them a lot of valuable time and money by helping them get it right the first time.

For example, you might list all the WordPress plugins you use on your blog. Or if you’re writing for weight lifters, you could share your goto list of all the “must use” supplements.

• A list of the top niche related free resources. Here you might link to videos, reports and expert’s blog posts, along with other free sources of content that will help your readers achieve some specific goal.

• A list of the best value paid resources. In this case, you could write a short review for each resource to let people know who can use it, why you prefer it, and its benefits.

• A list of the best free and paid resources. As an example, you could create “The Top 10 Resources Every Day Trader Should Read.”

The point of creating these lists is to save your reader time by doing a lot of of the research and legwork for them. As you’ll know yourself, it’s much easier to get quality recommendations and content all in one place from someone you trust, instead of having to find products and sources from all over the place.

These days having someone they trust separate the wheat from the chaff is a blessing for most time-poor, overwhelmed consumers.

Next…

4. Do Recaps Of Your Popular Recent Posts

The idea here is to build an “in case you missed it” list of your best or most popular blog posts of the last few weeks or months. Rather than just listing those blog posts, you could curate your own best content across platforms, including your social media accounts and newsletters, and put it into one place (on your blog).

Another way to do it is by curating your most popular content based on a very specific topic.

For example:

6 Blog Posts That Will Change the Way You Think About Trading The Markets

The 3 Posts Every Skiing Beginner Ought to Read

The 5 Keys to Improving Your Baseball Score

To put this together, just write an intro to the post, list the resources along with a short paragraph explaining why people should read each one, and then wrap it up with a succinct conclusion and a call to action (like joining your product launch list to get more info maybe…)

Next up…

5. Interview Experts In Your Market

Interviewing other experts a great way to create content fast: just let them create hyper-targeted, relevant content for you.

To get started, create a list of questions and send it to potential interviewees by email and let their answers become your article. In exchange, your guest gets a byline with a link back to their site.

Here’s an example email you could send to arrange these interviews…

Subject Line: Hey [name[ I’d like to feature you on my blog

Hey [First Name],

It’s [Your Name] here and I run the popular [type of] blog over at [your domain]. Thought I’d drop you a line because I’d like to interview you and feature your interview on the blog.

The interview is just [small number] questions, so it would only take about [small number of minutes] to complete.

In return, you’ll get a byline in the article and link back to your site, along with exposure to the [number] people in my audience. I’ll also send a link to your article to my [number] of newsletter subscribers to maximise your exposure.

If this sounds like a great way to showcase your business to a targeted audience, just reply back and I’ll send over the questions right away.

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Warm regards,

[your name]

——-

This is important: the easier you make it for someone to comply with your request, the more likely they will say yes. So don’t expect your interviewee to spend hours answering questions. Instead, send a few quick questions their way so they can answer them in just a few minutes. Then if you want more info, send a couple of follow up questions.

Here’s why you want to keep it simple…

Once a person has answered your first few questions, they’ll tend to feel invested and committed to your project. So if you ask for 10 more minutes of their time to answer a couple additional questions, they’re quite likely to agree.

Here’s a great example: Bob Serling only asks his interviewees to answer ONE question, and it’s this:

“What’s your favorite business building strategy or technique that’s working well for you or your clients right now?”

Can you see how succinct and powerful that is?

It allows his guests to go anywhere their imagination takes them, while keeping them focused on only sharing the best ideas.

The added beauty of this approach is you can bask in the ‘halo effect’ of association with other experts in your market, and some of them may even become your Joint Venture partners during your launch.

6. Tweak One Of Your Previous Articles

The next idea is to comb through and find the most popular articles in your existing content, tweak them to freshen them up, and republish the new version.

Some examples might be:

If you’ve published a list of 10 tips previously, excerpt out 5 of the best tips, expand on them for clarity, and republish the new article

Update one of your older articles with new information. You could include new research that has come on the scene since you originally published the article, and let your newsletter subscribers know about the updated information

Maybe you’ve changed your mind about a product, idea or another topic? Go ahead and update an older article with your revised opinion and ideas

Those are just 3 ways you could take your existing content and quickly turn it into something new. If you get a little bit creative you may be able to come up with dozens of new articles from your old content.

7. Turn Your Existing Content Into A Powerful Infographic

Another great way to quickly create valuable content is to change your existing posts, videos and articles into a different format. And one way to do this is by turning them into a infographics.

Here are 3 examples of articles that would make good infographics:

An article discussing multiple ways to generate more subscribers to an email list

An article explaining how muscle confusion works

An article that talks about different household pests and how to eradicate them using organic or natural pest control methods

Just make sure your infographics include social media buttons next to them, because these are the kind of content people love to share with others.

As an example, because being able to create irresistible offers is so important to the success of your launch and your business’s future, I took an article I’d written earlier and created a Free Cheat Sheet that shows you how to create the perfect offer.

8. Ask For Content From A Product Vendor

Do you promote products or services an affiliate? If you do (and you should), a great way to quickly get your hands on some free content is by asking the product vendor to create it for you.

Your first stop is to check the merchant’s affiliate centre if they have one available (most do). That’s where the vendor has likely given affiliates all sorts of content, often including blog posts, videos, White Papers and successful ads.

The thing is, you want your content to be unique, right?

So don’t just go straight to the blog post category and copy and past those articles into your blog, because all the other affiliates are likely to have done that. Instead, look through the other content provided such as reports, emails and similar.

Look for something suitable, and then ask the vendor if you can modify it to use on your blog.

If you don’t find what you like within the affiliate center, then write to the vendor and ask for an article. The key here is that vendor is more likely to give you content – especially your own exclusive content – if you’ve already proven yourself by making a few affiliate sales.

TIP: Here’s a powerhouse combo you can use to promote affiliate products while getting unique content for free: ask the vendor if you could interview them.

Most product owners will be happy to get the exposure and extra sales. You can post a text interview, or you might even consider interviewing the vendor during a short webinar or podcast.

9. Create Multimedia Posts

Up to now we’ve been talking about how to quickly create text articles. However, you don’t need to write a single word if you don’t want to.

Instead of writing, pick up a camera to record a short video on a topic your audience will find helpful.

TIP: You can also just turn on a microphone (I use a Blue Yeti and it’s awesome) to do a quick podcast. You don’t even need expensive editing tools. A simple tool like Audacity will let you capture and edit audio for free.

Give a live on camera demo, such as how to teach a dog to come when he’s called

If you’d like to demonstrate something on your computer screen, such as how to set up an email autoresponder message, then use screen-recording software such as Camtasia (PC) or Screenflow (Mac)

Then just upload the video to YouTube.com (so you get greater exposure), and then post the embedded video on your blog with a short intro and summary, along with a call to action at the end.

Cool, you now have 9 blog post ideas for driving traffic to your product launch. And because you’ve made it this far and stuck with me, I wanted to reward you with a bonus idea that can really help you to create content quickly.

So here goes…

10. Copy And Paste Your Email Messages

One very good and often overlooked source for articles and other content are from your own email messages. Here I’m talking about 2 things:

1. If you broadcast an announcement, article, run a promotion or deliver other content to your mailing list, then put that same content on your blog as well.

TIP: Tell your newsletter readers you’re posting the content on your blog, and then encourage them to click through and discuss the topic.

You get many benefits from this.

Your email open rate and click through rate will improve

Your ISP will see your readers interacting with your messages and will be less likely to block their delivery

And the more your audience interacts with you, the more they are going to get to know and trust you, which should mean more sales over time

2. If you reply to a customer’s comment or question and you realize it would make a good post, then post it as an article. Of course you won’t use any of the customer’s identifying information, but you might say something like this at the beginning of the post…

“Nearly every week, the same question seems to pop up in my email from people just like you. Check out this post and see if you’ve been wondering about this topic too…”

To sum up…

As you can see, you don’t need to spend a lot of time or money creating great content to drive traffic for your launch. All you need is ten minutes or less, and you can have blog posts ready to go one after the other.

I’m betting you could create one of these awesome blog posts right now and get it up right away. Go ahead and see for yourself just how easy it is to create content quickly using these 10 ideas.

As you can see, the list you build during your product launch is going to require lots of visitor traffic, but having that list will give you the perfect springboard for creating a profitable, long-term, sustainable business for yourself and your family. To learn more about everything to do with launching your own product or service, check out Jeff Walker’s free Product Launch Masterclass here.

Talk soon,

Rocky

P.S. Click here to get a copy of the PDF version of this article so you can read it again anytime you want.

PLUS: When you’re ready, here are 4 ways I can help you to grow your business using product launches:

1. How To Create A Signature Product Out Of Thin Air In 72 Hours Or LessCreating your product does not need to take weeks or months. My 72 Hour Product Creation Guide shows you how to build high value products one after the other in 72 hours or less. Click Here

2. How To Outsource Your Product Creation And Make It Hands Free.
Outsourcing the creation of some or all of your products and bonuses is a great way to save your time for the more important (and more fun) things you’d rather be doing. Grab my Hands Free Outsourcing Cheat Sheet to learn more. Click Here

3. How To Build A Profitable Launch List.
Building an email list is critical if you plan on doing a launch for your product, service or business. My 1-2-3 List Building Cheat Sheet will show you how to build a responsive list of prospects who are ready to buy from you during your launch. Click Here

4. Work One-On-One With Me
If you’d like to work directly with me to run a launch for your business… just send me a message by emailing me at rocky [at] localwebsolutions.com and put “One-on-One” in the subject line… tell me a little about your business and what you’d like to work on together, and I’ll get you all the details!

When it comes to using the Product Launch Formula process to run the most successful launch, one of the keys is in creating your own affiliate program and having other people send you their best customers who then buy your product.

The hardest part of this process is recruiting GOOD affiliates who know what they are doing, who have an email database, and who are prepared to add you to their mailing schedule.

That’s because the top affiliates aren’t just sitting around waiting for opportunities. They don’t have to, because so many great opportunities come across their desks every single week.

So if you want to build an affiliate program that’s full of serious marketers who have a proven track record, and who know how to drive targeted traffic to your product launch, you’re going to have to go out and compete for the attention of these in-demand professionals.

These affiliates will already be making tons of sales for your competitors, and you’ll need to recruit them and get them to do the same for you.

But how?

Let’s start with 5 great ways to find your competitor’s most valuable affiliates…

______________________________________________

Don’t have time to read this powerful step-by-step guide right this minute? Click Here to get the PDF version and read it anytime you want!

______________________________________________

1. Look For Product Reviews And Pre-Selling Content

The first step is to search Google for the names of your competitor’s products along with search terms such as “review” or “comparison.”

The reason is pretty clear: affiliates are most likely to be the people putting up product reviews and comparisons, and that makes this a quick and easy way to find those affiliates.

TIP: By doing this, you’ll also know which affiliates are good at search engine optimisation (SEO). If the same affiliate is able to hold multiple key rankings for a range of competing products, that’s a pretty good sign they will be able to drive traffic your way as well.

You’ll want to do is search Google for the titles of your competitors’ lead magnets, as well as the titles of their articles, blog posts and their other content. You could search for excerpts out of articles that link to the affiliates main content.

Where do you get this information?

One good way to do it is by joining your competitors’ affiliate programs, because you’ll have access to the promotional content they create for their affiliates. Then you can search for the titles and excerpts from this content to uncover affiliates who are actively using that content to promote offers.

And checking our your competitor’s affiliate programs will also give you insights into how you can make your own products and services even better. The fact is the best affiliates go where they are rewarded the most. And if your offer is absolutely crushing it, they’ll naturally gravitate towards you anyway.

Because being able to create irresistible offers is so important to the success of your launch and your business’s future, I’ve put together a Free Cheat Sheet that shows you how to create the perfect offer. To make sure you don’t miss anything as you develop your offer, click here to grab your Free copy of The Perfect Offer Cheatsheet

And now that you’re logged into your competitors’ affiliate centers, you’ll also want to check out this next idea…

2. Check Your Competitors’ Product Launch Leaderboards

Here’s a quick and dirty way to know who your competitors’ BEST affiliates are: look for the people who win their affiliate contests.

Of course you’ll most likely need to be a member of your competitors’ affiliate programs to get access to this privileged information. But once you’re in, you should be able to see leader boards for both past and current contests. If you compare these boards across a range of competitors, you’ll see which affiliates consistently promote product launches and drive sales.

3. Join Affiliate And JV Facebook Groups and Forums

The next way to find your competitors’ affiliates is to visit the places where they all congregate online. In other words, participate in the affiliate forums and social media groups.

Specifically:

• Go to Facebook and use the search box to uncover groups using words such as “affiliate”, “affiliate marketing”, “jv”, or “joint venture”.

• Search Google for affiliate forums. You can search for terms such as “affiliate marketing forums” and “affiliate discussion”, “JV forum” and “joint venture forum”.

Once you find these platforms, join the biggest and most active ones. Then follow the conversations to get an idea of which affiliates are promoting which offers, and which affiliates tend to be the super affiliates in your niche market.

4. Follow The Flow Of Money

Another way to find out who’s generating the big sales for your competitors is by checking to see who is running ads for them. If an affiliate is consistently placing paid advertising for a product, that’s a great sign that they’re making money with those ads.

Here’s how to find these advertisers:

• Search Google for your competitors’ product and brand names. You’ll naturally find reviews and other content using this method (which is very helpful), but you’ll also be presented with text ads. These ads may go to lead pages if affiliates are using a two-step advertising process, or other content that’s designed to get you to click through to the merchant’s site. But whether one-step or two-step, this strategy will give you an idea of who is promoting what in your niche.

• Check niche sites that accept advertising. Then take note of who’s placing the ads, because these could be your potential affiliates.

TIP: Sometimes it’s hard to decipher an affiliate link to know who is behind it. Here are two tips that might help:

1. Check to see if they are using a redirect URL. Many affiliates redirect their affiliate links through their own websites. If they do, visit the domain to see if it’s clear who owns it. If not, run the domain through a whois search such as www.whois.com.

2. Run a search for the affiliate link (or even just the affiliate ID). If it’s an affiliate who is direct linking, then search for that link in Google. If the link isn’t a tracking link, then there’s a good chance the affiliate has used it in other promotions, such as on his own website or blog.

Next idea…

5. Keep A Record Of The Highest Selling Products

The idea here is simple: some of the top product owners in your niche are often the super affiliates too. That’s because these vendors have used product launches and paid advertising to build big email databases of prospects and customers.

You probably already know some of the top sellers in your niche, and some of your biggest competitors could become your top affiliates. Once you draw up your list, you can add to it using these two tips:

• Check marketplaces such as Clickbank.com and JVZoo.com. These affiliate marketplaces often rank products based on popularity, so it will only take you a few minutes to determine which are the best-selling products in your niche on that platform.

• Use JVNotifyPro.com to keep track of the big product launches. The marketers who are rolling out the biggest launches will probably also have the biggest customer lists in your niche.

There you have it – five good ways to find your competitors’ affiliates. If you use all of these methods, you’ll be able to easily uncover all the super affiliates operating in your niche, as well as dozens of other really good affiliates who can help you build sales in your product launches.

Which brings us to this important question…

So, How Do You Recruit These Proven Performers?

As we’ve discussed, these top affiliates get a bunch of great promotion requests crossing their desks every week. That means that just saying, “Hey, wanna make some great commissions?” isn’t going to get their attention.

Because of all of this competition, you need to have a standout product and create what Jeff Walker calls a “Crushing Offer” before the top affiliates will promote for you.

Here are tips for making it happen…

Build Relationships With People In Your Market

People like to do business with people they know, like and trust. So when an affiliate gets two identical offers from two different vendors, the odds are they are going to join the vendor they already know, like and trust. That’s why it’s a good idea to build relationships first before beginning your recruitment, especially when you’re trying to recruit super affiliates.

Here are three tips for building these relationships:

• Do something for the other person first. For example, if the person has their own product, sign up for their affiliate program and make some sales for them first.

• Interact with them online. Make helpful, thoughtful comments on their blog that help their community. Connect with them on social media. Send an email to them to talk about a recent newsletter issue or blog post. The point is, just start talking to these potential super affiliates so you get to know each other.

• Make a name for yourself in the niche. If you create great products and build a good reputation for yourself, people will naturally start approaching you. They’ll know you and trust you through your authority and reputation. This means you don’t need to necessarily go out into the niche and invest a lot of time building one-on-one relationships, since everyone will be eager to work with you when you approach them, but it will take time to achieve this for yourself.

Next up…

Give Free Access to the Product

You should never hesitate on this point. It doesn’t matter whether you’re selling a $17 ebook or a $997 home study course that’s shipped to the customer’s door, you MUST give your potential super affiliates access to the product.

First, any affiliate with their salt isn’t going to promote a product without reviewing it thoroughly themselves. And secondly, since you are approaching this potential affiliate, you need to give them access to the product as a gesture of goodwill.

Don’t make your potential affiliate ask for it, and certainly don’t expect them to pay for it. Just send access at the same time you’re sending your recruitment email.

Which brings us to the next point…

Offer Them Something Extra Special

If your goal is to recruit the top affiliates in your niche, it’s a good idea to give them special perks that you don’t offer everyone else. This includes benefits such as:

To get you started, here’s an example of the email you might send out to a prospective affiliates (especially ones with who you’ve built a relationship):

Subject: New product – Thought you’d like to hear about it first…

Hi [First Name],

I’m just about ready to launch a new product, and I wanted to be sure you heard about it first. That’s because I think it’s a great fit for your audience, and I’m also offering a special commission rate if you come on board to promote.

The product is called [name of product], and [describe in a sentence or two what the product does – in other words, why would this person’s audience want this product?]

Here, you can check it for yourself: [download link to entire product]

Right now the sales letter is pulling a [%] conversion rate in our initial testing, so this is already proving to be an in-demand product that gives you the potential for a lot of sales.

And here’s the best part: you’re getting a special “inner circle” commission rate of [%] – that’s a full [$amount] in your pocket for every sale you make.

What’s more, you also get [insert any other perks… exclusive promotional opportunities before the affiliate program is open to the public, special discounts, etc].

I’ve taken the liberty of setting up your affiliate account. Here’s the info:

[affiliate link]

[affiliate log in info]

Once you log in you’ll get access to all sorts of emails, articles, banners and other ads and creatives you can use to promote this product.

We’re launching on [date] – are you in?

Let me know if you have any questions or if there is anything I can do for you to make promotions easier…

A Few Parting Thoughts

If you’ve always wanted to enjoy the benefits of a big product launch (including a big list-build, massive exposure, increased authority and huge profits when done right), or you just want just get the increase in sales that only a really good super affiliate team can deliver, then finding and recruiting the best affiliates in your market is the key.

And finding your competitors’ most productive affiliates and persuading them to promote your product launch too is a fantastic way to do this is.

This crash course has given you the exact step by step plan for doing that. So what’s your next step?

Get started and work through each step to start finding those affiliates, because recruiting just ONE top affiliate could add hundreds of prospects to your email database and thousands of dollars to your launch profits.

PLUS: When you’re ready, here are 4 ways I can help you to grow your business using product launches:

1. How To Create A Signature Product Out Of Thin Air In 72 Hours Or LessCreating your product does not need to take weeks or months. My 72 Hour Product Creation Guide shows you how to build high value products one after the other in 72 hours or less. Click Here

2. How To Outsource Your Product Creation And Make It Hands Free.
Outsourcing the creation of some or all of your products and bonuses is a great way to save your time for the more important (and more fun) things you’d rather be doing. Grab my Hands Free Outsourcing Cheat Sheet to learn more. Click Here

3. How To Build A Profitable Launch List.
Building an email list is critical if you plan on doing a launch for your product, service or business. My 1-2-3 List Building Cheat Sheet will show you how to build a responsive list of prospects who are ready to buy from you during your launch. Click Here

4. Work One-On-One With Me
If you’d like to work directly with me to run a launch for your business… just send me a message by emailing me at rocky [at] localwebsolutions.com and put “One-on-One” in the subject line… tell me a little about your business and what you’d like to work on together, and I’ll get you all the details!

There’s a reason why Jeff Walker recommends using a Seed Launch as the first step you take when you are thinking about creating a new information product.

And that’s because a Seed Launch allows you to create a product you KNOW has proven demand before you create it, and it allows you to create what we call the minimum viable product to test the market quickly and inexpensively.

We all know people who have spent weeks, months or even years creating products that nobody wanted to buy.

Don’t do that…

By using a Seed Launch to ask people in your market for their ideas and feedback on what they really want to buy, you can get paid to before you even create a product, and include everything your customers want included so the finished product is tailor made just for them.

And you can use a series of these small, low-risk launches to start and grow an information product empire in just a few years…

Step 1 – Find Out What People Want To Buy

The first step is to survey your market and ask people what they want to buy.

You can use a free tool such as Surveymonkey.com to ask people what their biggest problem is, what they’ve already tried that didn’t work for them, and what their ideal product would have to include to make them really blown away.

Step 2 – Outline Your Product Into 4 – 6 Modules

The second step is to outline the content of your product into 4, 5 or 6 modules, starting chronologically from the steps your customers should take first, and leading through each step until they can achieve they outcome they are looking for.

Once you’ve got your outline, fill in each Module with the 5 – 6 minor steps needed to complete that Module.

Now once you’ve done this for all 6 (or whatever) Modules, create the content for MODULE 1 ONLY. You don’t want to fill in every piece of content for every Module yet because you are going to be using feedback you get from your students as you complete each module of the training.

Step 3 – Schedule A Live Webinar For Each Module

You are going to deliver your Course content via a series of weekly live Webinars. I know this might sound scary, but honestly it is the fastest and by far the best way to create content on the fly that people will actually find valuable.

The format will be along the lines of:

Week 1 – Deliver the content you have prepared or Module 1 over 40 – 90 minutes, and then answer every question your students have. The day after you’ve delivered your content, send students the Webinar replay along with a survey and ask them if they have any unanswered questions, tell them what Module 2 is going to cover, and ask them for their questions on that topic.

Week 2 – Take 60 – 90 minutes to answer any questions from the previous week, deliver the second week’s content based on what your students told you they wanted to know (along with your own insights), and then answer every question you can.

The day after you’ve delivered your content, again send students the Webinar replay along with a survey and ask them if they have any unanswered questions, tell them what you’ll be covering in Module 3, and ask them for their questions on that topic.

Week – 3 – 6 – Take 60 – 90 minutes to answer any questions from the previous week, deliver the third week’s content based on what your students told you they wanted to know in the survey (along with your own insights), and then answer every question you can for as long as it takes.

Each week continue sending the Webinar replays along with surveys asking them if they have any unanswered questions, tell them what the next Module is going to cover, and ask them for their questions on that topic. Keep delivering your Webinars until you finish going through the entire course.

Step 4 – Make An Irresistible Offer For Your New Product

Once you’ve scheduled your Webinar series, it’s time to start enrolling students. Because you are trying to test the market, and making a profit during your Seed Launch is not the primary objective, you can afford to make an irresistible offer for your new product in order to get as many virtual “bums on seats” as possible.

You should aim for at least 50 people at the start of your course, because your must have interaction with your students (by getting them to ask questions and complete your surveys) and as your course gets towards the end, a good proportion of people will drop off and simply won’t show up.

If you really have to, you can give some people complementary access to get the numbers up, but you don’t want to be giving access away to everyone because the goal as we said is to test the market.

One final thing. Being able to create an irresistible offer is so important to the success of your Seed Launch that I’ve put together a Free Cheat Sheet that shows you how to create the perfect offer. To make sure you don’t miss anything as you develop your offer, click here to grab your Free copy of The Perfect Offer Cheatsheet

Step 5 – Deliver Your Training Webinars

Now it’s time to deliver each Module, surveying your students and answering their questions as you go.

At the end of your course’s scheduled content, it’s a good idea to overdeliver and give a free Bonus Webinar to cover additional insights and answer any final questions your students may have.

When you’ve completed your training, you’ll have an awesome course created with the help of your students that gives people in your market exactly what they want to know about the topic you covered.

PLUS: When you’re ready, here are 4 ways I can help you to grow your business using product launches:

1. How To Create A Signature Product Out Of Thin Air In 72 Hours Or LessCreating your product does not need to take weeks or months. My 72 Hour Product Creation Guide shows you how to build high value products one after the other in 72 hours or less. Click Here

2. How To Outsource Your Product Creation And Make It Hands Free.
Outsourcing the creation of some or all of your products and bonuses is a great way to save your time for the more important (and more fun) things you’d rather be doing. Grab my Hands Free Outsourcing Cheat Sheet to learn more. Click Here

3. How To Build A Profitable Launch List.
Building an email list is critical if you plan on doing a launch for your product, service or business. My 1-2-3 List Building Cheat Sheet will show you how to build a responsive list of prospects who are ready to buy from you during your launch. Click Here

4. Work One-On-One With Me
If you’d like to work directly with me to run a launch for your business… just send me a message by emailing me at rocky [at] localwebsolutions.com and put “One-on-One” in the subject line… tell me a little about your business and what you’d like to work on together, and I’ll get you all the details!

The old advice we often received from self-help gurus of “fake it till you make it” (especially if you are running a big product launch), where you’re pretend to be an expert even if they aren’t one CAN work in some situations. The problem is that once you get exposed as a fake and a fraud in your market, there’s usually no way to come back from that.

So here’s what: you need to do to become a REAL expert so you can legitimately position yourself as the ‘go-to’ person in your market.

While some people refer to the 10,000 hour rule that says it takes 10,000 hours to become a true expert, depending on how narrow your niche market is (and the narrower the better, at least at the start, you CAN become a recognised expert much more quickly if you want too.

You can’t do it by just reading a few articles or watching a few Youtube videos, but you can go a long way to expert status by following these steps…

Step 1: Study Everything You Can Get Your Hands, Your Eyes And Your Ears On

The key here is to jump straight to the source and consume in-depth and unbiased information.

Say you want to become a copywriting expert. There’s plenty of copywriting information available for free online, or inexpensively in books, but most (but not all) of it just rehashed and repackaged from the original (and more recent) masters of direct response marketing.

So the secret to forming a good foundation is to go back to the original sources and learn directly from them. These sources include older masters like Robert Cialdini and David Ogilvy, and more precent examples such as Jay Abraham, Gary Halbert, Dan Kennedy, Clayton Makepeace and Gary Bencivenga.

Then once you have an understanding of the core fundamentals, stay on top of new and developing information based on the work of these masters.

Jeff Walker’s Product Launch Formula takes what he’s learned from many of these experts and codifies it into a step-by-step blueprint for launching or relaunching any product or service quickly and profitably.

Once you’ve absorbed as much source information as you possibly can, jump in and start testing the strategies you’ve learned yourself.

For example, using our copywriting market, start testing headlines, copy leads, different calls to action, your offer (as Jeff says, you’ll want to come up with a ‘crushing offer’), your order page (order page abandonment can be up to 90%!), your optin page and email sequence, and the rest of your funnel to see for yourself what really works.

In other words, don’t take anyone else’s word that something works. If you’re trying to position yourself as an expert for your product launch, it makes sense to find out what works for yourself before you start teaching it to others.

Teaching stuff that doesn’t work is a sure way to have a very short career as one expert. The internet is littered with scammers and marketers who over promised and under delivered. You don’t want to join them.

When you’ve proven things to your satisfaction, recruit a small group of people (you could call them ‘beta-testers’ or founding members) to help you by testing your ideas in their own markets (even if you give your product away or at a large discount).

This process also gives you real case studies and proof that your ideas work. Then you can honestly show how you’ve helped people solve real problems, giving you proof and social proof, which are two of the most powerful Product Launch Formula mental triggers.

This is so powerful because you’ll be able to share real results, examples and case studies from real world experience, and people can see that you’re not just theories and untested ideas.

Step 3: Develop Your Own Teaching And Delivery Style

Once you start experimenting and testing some of the ideas you’ve learned, you’ll want to start putting your own personal spin on these old methods. In other words, develop your own style when it comes to completing tasks and achieving goals in your niche.

Todd Brown talks about two critical features most new products and services need these days in an over-saturated and over-marketed to world.

These are what he calls The Big Idea, and The Unique Mechanism. I don’t have space to discuss these here, but check out Todd’s work on them and work out how you can incorporate both of them in your product launch, because combined they will make a huge difference to your results (in a good way) 🙂

Step 4: Condense Any Complex Concepts To Simple Steps Or Processes

By the time you’ve completed your studies and proven your ideas, you’ll be well on your way to becoming an expert in your market. Unfortunately, the problem for many true experts is they teach at such a high level, their students fail to benefit because they don’t understand the basics enough to grasp the higher level topics.

So one of the keys to truly becoming an expert who creates lasting change is your ability to simplify a complex concept to its most basic and simple parts – and then teach it to other people in an easy-to-understand way.

A lot of people get overwhelmed with information in a niche, especially when they are new to it. One of your jobs is to be able to show people what’s important and what to focus on, what to ignore, and what steps to take to achieve the results they are after. If you can succeed at this, you’ll start to be seen as an expert in the eyes of your potential clients and customers.

And finally…

Step 5: Keep Yourself In The Loop

With change coming at us at such a rapid rate these days, it’s rare that you can learn something once and consider yourself an expert for life. You’ll need to continue learning and growing in your expertise so you can stay relevant. Thing are going to continue to change in every market, so you’ll need to change to capitalise on them.

To Sum Up…

You can’t expect to become an expert overnight, you won’t become one simply by reading, listening to podcasts or watching a few Youtube videos, and you certainly don’t stay one if you don’t stay current. But focusing down to a small but profitable area instead of trying to be all things to all people, and then using the 5 steps we’ve discussed in this article, can help you become a true expert in your field in much less than the legendary ‘10,000 hour rule’ demands.

PLUS: When you’re ready, here are 4 ways I can help you to grow your business using product launches:

1. How To Create A Signature Product Out Of Thin Air In 72 Hours Or LessCreating your product does not need to take weeks or months. My 72 Hour Product Creation Guide shows you how to build high value products one after the other in 72 hours or less. Click Here

2. How To Outsource Your Product Creation And Make It Hands Free.
Outsourcing the creation of some or all of your products and bonuses is a great way to save your time for the more important (and more fun) things you’d rather be doing. Grab my Hands Free Outsourcing Cheat Sheet to learn more. Click Here

3. How To Build A Profitable Launch List.
Building an email list is critical if you plan on doing a launch for your product, service or business. My 1-2-3 List Building Cheat Sheet will show you how to build a responsive list of prospects who are ready to buy from you during your launch. Click Here

4. Work One-On-One With Me
If you’d like to work directly with me to run a launch for your business… just send me a message by emailing me at rocky [at] localwebsolutions.com and put “One-on-One” in the subject line… tell me a little about your business and what you’d like to work on together, and I’ll get you all the details!